Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Random Thoughts: On The "Wild Wild West" On the Web & Other Thoughts....

It has been a stressful few days as I almost fell for a scam. I went after an opportunity advertised through ZipRecruiter and caught it in enough time to make sure that I was not out any money. When I met with my local law enforcement, my banks and followed up with both ZipRecruiter and the Company, I found out about the most recent scam out there. In this case, it turned out that ZipRecruiter had been hacked and the Company and ZipRecruiter were both very apologetic when I reached out to them. I also filed an FBI report with the Internet Crime Complaint Center. An excerpt of the recommendations noted by the ZipRecruiter Team is worth noting--although they did note that anyone using ZipRecruiter does so at their own risk: it is common for fraudulent accounts to be hiring for a specific position and may go under a different alias company name and email address as well to cover their tracks which can make them hard to identify. We always encourage our job seekers to do their research and use their best judgment when deciding whether or not to move forward with a potential employment opportunity. Please consider the following suggestions:

Please express caution with any hiring manager claiming to be traveling, conducting interviews via Google Hangouts, offering a job without an interview, mailing a check for payment, or asking for personal information via email as these can be indicative of fraudulent activity. You should, therefore, avoid providing sensitive personal information when conducting email interviews solely online. Always be cautious when providing personal information via online such as a Social Security Number, Driver's License, etc. which are typically given after employment is offered as part of an onboarding process.I will be publishing an article on this incident within the next 30 days. Despite my own missteps, I was lucky because I had a Guardian Angel. The moral of the story is simply this: the need to be aware is ever so evident. I could not help but wonder why wouldn't anyone live up to the simple creed taught by the ancient Persian Prophet Zartost: